Program 135’s Impacts on the livelihood of the Mường people in Cẩm Thủy district, Thanh Hóa province

44

Social Sciences Information Review, Vol.10, No.4, December, 2016

Program 135’s Impacts on the livelihood
of the Mường people in Cẩm Thủy district,
Thanh Hóa province
Nguyễn Thế Anh
MA, Thanh Hóa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism;
Email:
Received 18 May 2016; published 25 December 2016

Abstract: Under the influence of the Program 135, in recent time, the livelihood of the
Mường people in Cẩm Thủy district, Thanh Hóa province, Vietnam (especially in four
key communes in our research which are Cẩm Giàng, Cẩm Lương, Cẩm Liên, Cẩm
Thành) although is still at low level, but has had a significant and rapid change. This
change has been manifested in the human capital and the natural, financial, material
and social capitals. So we can see the important role of the Program 135 to the
development of Mường people's livelihood here, especially of the process of investment
in the system of electricity, roads, schools, and medical stations, creating conditions for
investment in production.
Keywords: Program 135, Livelihood, Mường people, social capital.

The term “livelihood” was born in the
1980s when Robert Champers approached it
for the first time. He said that “livelihood”
consists of capacity, assets, approach (the
reserves, resources, ownership and rights of
use) and the activities being necessary for
life (citing after Bùi Bích Lan, 2013). But
according to the Ministry of International

Development (DFID), livelihood “includes
the ability to plan, assets (including both
material and social resources) and activities

required for a living” (citing after Nguyễn
Văn Sửu, 2010).
When implementing the program of
activities for community development in
Vietnam, Center for Rural Development
(CRD) said that livelihood “gathers all the
resources and capabilities that humans get,
combined with the decisions and actions
they make for the living as well as to
achieve the goals and their aspirations”
(citing after Bùi Bích Lan, 2013).


Program 135’s impacts on…

Cẩm Thủy district (of Thanh Hóa
province) has three ethnic groups: Kinh,
Mường, Dao living together, in which the
Mường population accounts for nearly
52.4% . Under the impacts of the Program
135 and some other programs, the
livelihood of ethnic minorities in Cẩm
Thủy district in general and of Mường
people in particular has a significant
change, both on the macro perspective of
the whole district and the micro

perspective of the households. That
change can be seen through the livelihood
resources and assessment of local people.
1. Program 135 and the activities
implemented in Cẩm Thủy district
Program 135 was issued under Decision
No. 135/1998/QĐ-TTg dated 31/7/1998 of
the Prime Minister. Accordingly, about
1,000 communes in 1,715 communes in
difficulty and extremely difficult districts
were chosen by the Government to be in
focus of investment. The remaining
communes received investment through
the national target programs and projects
and other development programs.
According to initial plan, the Program
would only last for 7 years and would
divide into two periods: 1998-2000 and
2001-2005. However, because of the
effectiveness in practice, the Program 135
has been continuely prolonged from 2006
to 2010 by Decision 07/2006 QD-TTg.
The overall objective of the Program 135
is to enhance rapidly material and spiritual
life of ethnic minorities in the extremely
difficult communes in the mountainous
and remote regions; create opportunity for
these regions to get rid of poverty,

45

backwardness and retardation to integrate
into the overall development of the
country; contribute to ensure security and
order, social safety and national security.
The prolongation of the program aims to
create rapid changes in production,
promotes economic restructuring in
agriculture towards production tied to the
market, improves and enhances the
material and spiritual life of the ethnic
minorities
in
extremely
difficult
communes and villages.
Total expenditure of the entire Program in
the period 1998-2005 was about 10 trillion
VND. The country has built and put into
operation more than 25 thousand of
essential projects of various kinds,
contributing significant change to the face
of rural and mountainous areas, improving
and enhancing the life of ethnic minorities
in general. In the period 2006-2010, the
central budget has allocated 14,025.25
billion VND, disbursed 13,604.5 billion,
reached 97.1% of the allocation. This
capital is arranged for four specific areas:
Supporting the development of production

and constructing infrastructure; Training
and retraining village officials to undertake
the assignment; Supporting services,
improving and enhancing people's life;
Providing legal consultancy to raise
people’s awareness of laws (Thanh Hóa
Committee for Nationalities, 2012).
Review of 5-year implementation of
Program for 2006-2010 has shown that the
poverty rate in the particularly difficult
communes and villages decreased from
47% (2006) to 28.8% (2010). Income per
capita has improved, reaching 4.2 million
VND/person/year by 2010. The increased


46

Social Sciences Information Review, Vol.10, No.4, December, 2016

percentage of those communes having
roads for motor vehicles from the
commune center to the villages has
reached 80.7%. 100% of communes have
medical stations; 100% of people who
were in need of legal consultancy have
received free assistance (Thanh Hóa
Committee for Nationalities, 2012).
In Cẩm Thủy district, Program 135 was
implemented on many communes from

1999 up to now. Specific objectives of the
Program 135 for deployment in 1,000 of
1,715 communes with special difficulties
in the country in general were also
objectives of Cẩm Thủy district in
particular when setting out Program in
some especially difficult communes of the
district where there are most Mường
people live, and this deployment process
was divided in two periods:
Period 1998-2000: Basically, there were
no more chronically hungry households,
number of poor households was reduced
annually by 4-5%; the providing with
drinking water for the inhabitants was
achieved in the first step, majority of
children were attracted to school; some
dangerous diseases were controlled; roads
of economic welfare to the communal
centers were built, majority of Mường
people could enjoy the culture and
information (Thanh Hóa Committee for
Nationalities, 2006).
Period 2001-2005: The rate of poor
households in the especially difficult
communes of Mường people was reduced
to 25% by 2005; supplying Mường people
with running water was ensured; over
70% of children of Mường people were
attracted to school, majority of Mường

people were provided with experiences of
production, with scientific-cultural and
social knowledges in order to apply them
in production and life; majority of
dangerous diseases were controlled; roads
for motor vehicles and roads economic
welfare leading to communal centers were
built; development of rural markets was
promoted (Thanh Hóa Committee for
Nationalities, 2006).
The prolongation of Program 135 is
considered as one of the largest poverty
reduction programs for 2006-2010,
focusing on the particularly difficult areas
where residents are mainly ethnic
minorities, including some communes in
Cẩm Thủy district. Beside its common
objectives when it was deployed across
the country in prolonged period, the
Program was determined to evaluate its
effects as well as its limitations in order to
improve and enhance the effectiveness of
the programs of the government in the
future. Cẩm Thủy district has some
communes and villages in the prolonged
Program 135 for the period 2006-2010.
Under the impacts of the Program 135,
Cẩm Thủy district in general and those
localities in which there are Mường

people in particular have experienced a
change through the periods and this
change was depended on each stage with
different levels of investment. The
impacts of the Program on each locality
and each commune were clearly
expressed. Total investment in the period
1998-2000 was 10.5 billion VND,
distributed
to
five
components:
construction of infrastructure; construction
of communal centers; planning and


Program 135’s impacts on…

residential restructuring; stabilization and
development of production... During the
period 2001-2005, there were 19 projects
was invested with total funding of 8.8
billion VND, including works as road,
school, medical station, electricity, culture
(Reporter, 2008). Thanks to the funds of
Program 135 for the period 2006-2010, 4
communes which have the majority of
Mường people received investment of 6
works of roads for particularly difficult
villages.

Since implementation, the Program has
helped to make major changes in the life
of the Mường people, contributing to the
development of production and to the
socio-economic development. The whole
district had basically no hungry
households, poor households decreased
from 31% in 1999 to 21% in late 2005
(Thanh Hóa Committee for Nationalities,
2006). In 2012, economic growth of the
district reached 10.7%, the poverty rate
fell to 13.03%; income per capita reached
980 USD/year (Thanh Hóa Committee for
Nationalities, 2012)
2. The impacts on the livelihood of the
Mường people with regard to the
capitals(*)
* Human capital
In regard to peoples in Cẩm Thủy district
in general and Mường people in
(*)

This article uses the results of the field
ethnographic survey that we realized in April 2015
in 4 communes which are Cẩm Giàng, Cẩm
Lương, Cẩm Liên, Cẩm Thanh of Cẩm Thủy
district, on the 447 households representing about
2,000 households of Mường people living in these
4 communes. These communes of Cẩm Thủy
district have 85% of population being Mường

people.

47

particular, we can see the quality of
human resources and labor resources are
changing in a positive direction. The
average population of Mường households
tended to decline, from nearly 5.1
inhabitants per household in 2001 to only
4.5 inhabitants per household in 2010.
Meanwhile, the number of workers per
household almost unchanged and tended
to increase. This change was due to the
fact that the birth rate and the population
growth of Mường households decreased
significantly in recent years. This is the
basis of the first step, creating conditions
to improve living standards of the Mường
people recently.
Together with that, the level of learning of
the Mường people has improved
considerably as the percentage of Mường
children attending school increased from
90% in 2000 to 100% in 2010. From 2003
to 2007, Cẩm Thủy implemented
nomination policy for 48 students who are
Mường children of those communes under
the Program 135 after the distribution
criteria, and in 2007 there were 2 persons

who were assigned to the state
administrative bodies, and 9 persons were
being considered to be assigned to work.
During the same period between 2003 and
2007, the district implemented policies to
attract staffs and teachers to the highland
regions, the region under Program 135
received 122 persons (these communes
have 85% of the Mường population). In
addition, many new knowledges and new
production models have also been received
by Mường people and then applied through
various forms. Human capital in the local


48

Social Sciences Information Review, Vol.10, No.4, December, 2016

Mường nationality was assessed
changing considerably and quickly.

as

The survey results show that most Mường
people here (90%) said that human capital
changed in good trend. However, there are
several people recognized that this
Program also has certain negative effects
such as the gap between families, the

inequity in access to support.
* Material capital
The material conditions are quite
important in implementing the activities
of making living. However, in tradition,
the material resources or material capital
of Mường people here were very limited,
especially in infrastructure; the quality of
electricity, roads, schools and health
services as well as housing was in low
level. Since the Program 135 has been
implemented, the material facilities of
Cẩm Thủy district increasingly improved
and better meet the needs of living and
production of local people, especially the
Mường people.
Currently, Cẩm Thủy district has 4 High
Schools (in 1999 only 3 schools). By the
end of 2007, it has basically finished
eliminating temporary bamboo houses of
poor households of ethnic minorities in
general and of Mường people in
particular; the district also focus on
finishing 8 running water projects for
people in eight communes, 4 of which
have Mường people mainly; supported
1,048 households with productive land. In
particular, the district has 19/20
communes and towns which have asphalt
roads to the communal center; annually in

the surveyed sites there were built 3-5km

of inter-village concrete roads . The 19/20
communes and towns were connected to
the national electricity grid. If in 2000
only 90% of Mường households used
electricity, then by 2010 the figure was
99%. Health care was also attached
importance, with 19/20 communes and
towns having medical station to ensure the
quality of health care for the people.
Under impacts of the above changes, the
material capital on general households
scale in general and on Mường families
scale in particular has had significant
changes. These changes in the lives were
just recognized by the Mường people.
According to the results of our survey,
nearly 95% of Mường people said that
material capital gets better, and only 5%
said that material capital has not changed.
Thus, we can say, the material capital has
changed considerably in Cẩm Thủy
district in general and in areas of the
Mường people in particular.
* Natural capital
Natural resources are space and habitat of
people. Land is extremely important to the
living activities of Mường people here.
Survey results show that, in the Mường

households, the rate of natural land area
per household was very high, but it has
fallen rapidly in recent years, from 10.57
ha/household in 2000 to 8.05 ha/household
in 2010. Previously, land was the
advantage of the Mường people, but under
the pressure of the population growth, this
advantage is decreasing. However, in the
past 10 years, agricultural land and forest
area still increased, specifically in 2000
the rate of agricultural land per household
is 0.85 ha, and in 2010 it has increased to


Program 135’s impacts on…

1.15 ha. When the Program of investing
household with land and forest was
implemented, these natural resources rose
to 5.65 ha/household in 2010 compared to
only 2.34 ha/household in 2000.
Thus, despite the growing pressure on
land and forest resources, there were in
general the positive changes in land use
structure of the Mường people in recent
years. Due to the mode of production of
Mường people which is still unreasonable,
the quality of land and forest resources
tends to deteriorate. The cause of this
phenomenon is due to the fact that in the

past, the Mường minority households
mainly practised the mode of nomadic
farming by clearing up the forest for
cultivation, making land increasingly
infertile forest resources devastated.
Resources from forest products, which
supported livelihood of Mường people,
are increasingly exhausted.
In terms of scale, a number of programs
and projects supported the reclamation of
land for production, so the farmers have
stable production on their land, and the
farmable areas are also increasing. Most
of surveyed households said that the size
of their land area has increased (83.5% of
households replied that the land increased
after 10 years of implementing the
Programme 135, and 16.5% of the
respondents said that their area didn’t
change). This reconfirms that, together
with the local guidelines and policies on
reclamation, on expanding the production
area, changing the structure of plants to be
suitable for the local conditions, the
programs and projects also have a positive
impact on the production of local people.
* Financial capital

49

Financial capital is considered as an
important resource in supporting the
livelihood of the Mường people. Poor
households have access to credit funds of
different programs, among which we have
to mention the loan program of the Social
Policy Bank with preferential credit for
poor families (allowing one household to
borrow 8 to 50 million VND for a period
of 2 to 10 years, with the interest rate of
0.2% to 0.6% per year). In fact for some
households, the loans of bank have brought
huge benefits. The funds were to support
and create favorable conditions for the
Mường families in economic restructuring,
increase incomes and contribute to poverty
reduction. Mường households had equal
access and benefit from the loan.
Mechanism of low-interest loans for the
Mường people created opportunities for
Mường people to take advantage of
resources and available labor forces for
economic
development,
changing
production practices, applying techniques
in animal husbandry and cultivation.
Survey results indicate that the average
income of Mường households was
relatively low and there was no difference

between surveyed sites. This average
income was about 19.342 million VND
per household. According to the income
structure of surveyed households, we
could see that the earnings from
cultivation were highest and they were the
main source of income of Mường families
and there were no significant differences
in this with other nations. However,
income from services had large
differences between regions as Mường
households in the region of Divine Fish
Stream, due to tourism services, had 9.5


50

Social Sciences Information Review, Vol.10, No.4, December, 2016

times higher income than those
households in other areas.
Although not high, but the income of
Mường households have significantly
improved in recent years. Besides, they
could also have better access to credit to
compensate the financial difficulties.
* Social capital and the emergence of new
relationships
Traditionally, relations between the
members, between the families of the

Mường community were quite close and
had mutual assistance nature. Besides the
relationship between people of the same
village, the relationship within the Mường
family always had an important role in
living activities. Strong coherence
between the families in their line, between
the clans in the village community was
expressed quite well in helping each other
both in material and moral aspects when
the families had important affairs
(building house, having illness, wedding
and funeral,...), when were the crop
season or natural calamities, crop failure,
diseases,... This assistance did not have
the term and not charge interest. The love
and sentiments of the village and the
family ties were strengthened and
sustained by a system of traditional
regulations of the Mường community.
In the past, the social relations of Mường
people have formed good mutual
assistance relationships, creating resources
for subsistence activities. But besides
these preeminent characteristics, the social
relations of the Mường people have some
customs,
habits,...
which
impact

negatively on the development of today's
livelihood, such as the egalitarianism of

enjoying benefits (the determination of
criteria for poor households in each
Mường village is still heavily leveling,
conventional), the communitarianism in
work, the self-contained attitude (which
affects the access to the markets and
expanding them), the reduction of the role
of customary laws, contracts in traditional
institutions... In fact, these issues have
significantly limited the changes of
Mường people's livelihood in the today
market mechanism.
In addition, the relations of the Mường
community in Cẩm Thủy today are also
determined by the administrative system
and the laws of the State. The new
relations and social networks of Mường
people here have appeared in the forms of
local organizations of party, of
government and of unions such as the
local Farmers Union, Women's Union, the
Youth Union, Former Warriors Society
which have been enhanced and
strengthened. By becoming members of
the unions, the Mường farmers have
chances to learn, exchange and receive the
opportunities and benefits brought by the

organizations and unions. Social networks
such as the market system was initially
developed. This really is a positive
support network for the Mường people in
livelihood development.
3. Conclusion
By analyzing the effects of Program 135
on the livelihoods of the Mường people in
Cẩm Thủy district of Thanh Hóa province,
we draw some conclusions as follows:
- Livelihood of the Mường people has
changed considerably in recent years; the


Program 135’s impacts on…

livelihood capitals of the people have
changed significantly from the community
level to the household level. In particular,
the material capital and human capital
have the fastest change. These are basic
conditions for changing opportunities of
livelihood strategies of the Mường people.
- The Mường people have radically
changed the livelihood from an entire
dependency on the nature to the
development of production for income.
Although the production is not yet
diversified and efficient, but major
changes in recent years have made a

premise for a sustainable livelihood
strategy in the next stages. These
achievements are due to multiple impacts,
among which the Program 135 is one of
the greatest and most effective impacts.
This is reflected not only in the results of
the Program but also through the
recognition and evaluation of the Program
by the Mường people here.
- The level of impact of the Program differed
on regions, villages and households. In those
places which have favorable natural
conditions, such as the fertile lands, available
water sources or the proximity of centers, the
impact of the Program proved to be clearer
and vice versa.
- The Mường people are bound to
traditional practices, so they have difficulty
in taking advantage of opportunities
created by the program. Therefore the
impact of the Program on the livelihood of
the Mường people is not big.
- The lack of synchronization and
monitoring of investment is one of the basic
reasons for limiting the impacts of the

51

Program. Therefore, in some areas the
efficiency of the Program is not high yet 

References
1. Thanh
Hóa
Committee
for
Nationalities (2006), Final Report of
the Program 135 for the period 19992005, Archives Department of Thanh
Hóa province.
2. Thanh
Hóa
Committee
for
Nationalities
(2007),
Sustainable
development in ethnic minority and
mountainous areas in Vietnam,
Nationlities
Cultures
Publishing
House, Hanoi.
3. Thanh
Hóa
Committee
for
Nationalities (2012), Final Report of
the Program 135 for the period 20062010, Archives Department of Thanh
Hóa province.
4. Bùi Bích Lan (2013), Subsistence
Activities of Kháng people in Chiềng

Bom of Thuận Châu district of Sơn La
province, Anthropology PhD Thesis,
Institute of Ethnology.
5. Nguyễn Văn Sửu (2010), “Sustainable
Livelihood
Framework:
A
comprehensive analysis of the
development and poverty reduction”,
Journal of Ethnology, No. 2.
6. Reporter
(2008),
Thanh
Hóa
Committee
for
Nationalities:
Implementing the program of control
in
some
localities,
Uong/NewsId/140/PageView/BanDan-toc-HDND-tinh-Thanh-Hoa-Thuc-hien-Chuong-trinh-giam-sat-tai.